Philosophy Department's Invited Speakers Series: Prof. Cynthia Nielsen (University of Dallas): ‘Banksy, Street Art, and Gadamerian Hermeneutical Aesthetics’
Abstract: As Eva Branscome observes, Banksy not only ‘turns today’s cities and streets into galleries’, but he also ‘transforms museums into shrines of pop culture and commentary on the art market’. Street art uses elements of the street for its canvas, performance hall, and exhibition space. By intentionally utilizing elements of the street to create its works (and often illegally), street artists understand that their works will likely not endure or will not remain intact and untouched. They know full well that their works will be subject to erasure, destruction, and alteration. Moreover, since their ‘canvases’ are the walls of publicly and privately-owned buildings, streets, and other urban structures, the question of authorship and ownership is problematized. Should the owner of the building on whose wall a Bansky mural has been painted, photographed, and sold for large sums of money receive a share of the profits? Although this talk will not focus on the economic aspects of the ownership of the works, it does interact with related questions of the place or space for art and how street art not only transforms cityspace, but also has the ability to transform more traditional (and often exclusive) art spaces such as museums and art galleries. More specifically, the talk explores how the seeming ephemerality of Banksy’s street art gains its historical permanence—or perhaps better, ongoing life—through photographic, print, and digitized images of the ‘original’ works.